The number of people killed in a plane crash in Lagos has increased up to 17, two children among them. The plane carrying 27 people and conveying the body of the former Ondo State governor, Olusegun Agagu, crashed this morning at the Murtala Muhammed airport in Lagos immediately after take-off.
By now the rescue operation has ended. Agagu’s body recovered.
The charter flight took off at about 09:30 from the domestic terminal at Lagos Murtala Mohammed
Officials said the plane crashed on to open land within the airport complex close to a fuel storage a minute after take-off.
Spokesman for the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), Supo Atobatele, added that the engine of the jet had failed on takeoff and it crash-landed and burst into flames.
Aviation Ministry spokesman, Joe Obi, added that the plane nose-dived into a building in the area: ”The plane couldn’t lift properly so it just came down.”
Spokesperson of the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria, Yakubu Datti, told Al Jazeera that there are five survivors. They have been rushed to a nearby hospital, he added.
Datti confirmed that the Black Box of the aircraft have been recovered and investigation will commence immediately.
One of the eyewitnesses, Ahmad Safian, told the BBC: ”I heard a loud bang and then there was lots of black smoke. The security forces rushed straight to the scene. I saw three bodies removed from the wreckage.”
He also said the road to the airport was blocked for a short time but operations were continuing as normal at the airport.
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